And yet, in his own little garden patch, the tiniest flower was a revelation of the gorgeously colored acres that spread out before him. One little flower contained the secret of all those blossoming areas. And so, although God exceeds all that the eye hath seen or ear heard, all that has entered into the heart of man to conceive, yet the heart of man itself gives us the alphabet by which we can spell out the nature, the processes, the principles of action, of Him who is infinite and unsearchable.

III. Let us follow this principle of interpretation and ask, What is God's object in regard to his children? What is the object of those chastisements and penalties to which they are subjected? I answer: To save. Not to punish for the sake of inflicting pain; not to gratify his own feeling of outraged justice. He does not lay on his lash to see the victim writhe, saying to him at every stroke, "You deserve it." If he did, I should never mention his name again. I will not worship a demon though he be clothed in purple and lifted on high. I will worship God, who uses severity for the purpose of salvation. He does not punish because souls in heaven will not be safe if he does not. Such a heaven would not be worth preserving. If the redeemed can only be kept within the jasper battlements because the lost are suffering untold horrors that stretch through endless time, then let the jasper battlements be razed and

heaven itself destroyed! Penalty is sent in love. The fire burns to purify.

He

Love must have control of and guide justice, even among men. Justice without love is mere brutality. Justice administered without taking the culprit himself into account is justice that ought not be heard of in a civilized country. It may indeed be needful to protect the interests of society, and different nations and communities may require different methods of administering justice, different penalties for crime, but we ought to be growing towards a state of society in which the culprit himself shall not be lost sight of. He has not forfeited every right. He has not placed himself beyond the reach of human endeavor. He has not annulled his relationship to the race. has not cancelled the fact that he is still a creature of God. In recent times the reformatory element in penalty is made more and more prominent. Let us admit that it may not be the only element, the only thing to be attended to; but that will be the best and safest condition of society that shall be able to make a criminal put his crimes away and become an upright member of society. All that we ought to desire for any one is that he become good. If he has wronged us never so deeply, to see him put aside his evil life, cast away his wrong habits, and build up a worthy character, is the sweetest revenge that a human being could ask.

Which would be better under the divine government, to have even such men as Nero and Caligula and all the rest of that infamous host whose names the world has not ceased to execrate-which would be better to perpetuate their sins, so to inflict penalty, that the spirits of those men will continue rebellious and intractable forever, or so to deal with them that somewhere, some time, their sins shall cease? Which is better, for God to protract evil through the entire future, or some day to bring it to an end?

God's retributions are mercies, and those mercies follow along the lines of natural law, so that we may say, when a violated law brings its consequences, "It is the hand of God." We do not mean that there are direct inflictions. We mean that he has so arranged the order of this universe that penalty follows transgression as inevitably as darkness follows the setting of the sun. His wisdom and goodness are shown in this arrangement. The pangs and stings of conscience, twinges of remorse, fearful looking for of retribution--these are God's dealings with the soul, and they are merciful. They will not cease in this world or the next until his object has been accomplished. These are the fires that consume. They burn out and destroy that which is evil and they refine and purify that which is good.

"Our God is a consuming fire." "It is not that

the fire will burn us if we do not worship God," says George MacDonald, "but that the fire will burn us until we do worship God." "Our God is a consuming fire." In these words we read not the doom of man, but the doom of evil. "Our God is a consuming fire." In these words we read not the destruction of sinners, but the destruction of their sins. "Our God is a consuming fire" is one of the strongest prophecies of the triumph of purity and goodness. It assures us that all wickedness in the individual and the universe shall at last be consumed; that all righteousness shall at last shine forth refined and triumphant. Burn on, O flame of cleansing, till the deepest dungeon of the pit shall be purged; till the foulest soul that rolls and swelters in depravity shall become pure and bright as the loftiest angel that casts his crown at Jehovah's feet!

XIII.

THE REMEDY OF OBLIVION.

AN ABSTRACT.

[Sunday Evening, May 1, 1892.]

It is a significant fact that the mind refuses to be satisfied with the present, and constantly turns toward the future. Exhort as we will, "attend to the duty of the hour," even while the hand is on the plow, the mind is soaring beyond field and furrow into space. The reasons do not lie far away. Only a little while ago we were not here. In a little while we shall go hence-whither? We all have friends whose names to-day we read upon marble. Shall we meet them beyond the grave? Or, are they vanished forever? For these reasons we shall always stand questioning at the door of the great silence and mystery.

One of the most absorbing topics of speculation is that furnished by the fate of those who go out of this life without having passed through what the church calls conversion.

Three answers are given:

(1) They pass to a state of conscious torment that is endless.

(2) They are blotted out-annihilated,